Current Situation & Support for Future Action Clause Samples
Current Situation & Support for Future Action. According to the Eurobarometer survey, approximately 49% of the Bulgarian population have a current bank account.59 A similar percentage (47%) is given by another study on behalf of the Financial Inclusion Observatory.60 Although this number has risen from 40% in the previous Eurobarometer61, Bulgaria remains bottom of the ranking and along with Romania (53%), trails some 30 percentage points behind the next EU Member State. According to the Financial Inclusion Observatory, the main groups of the population without access to a basic account are elderly people in villages (who usually have low incomes and prefer to hold their money in cash) and the Roma population (who traditionally keep their money in gold and invest in real estate).60 14% of the Bulgarian population live below the poverty threshold according to 2003 World Bank data.
Current Situation & Support for Future Action. Neither the regulatory body nor the stakeholders (banks or consumer associations) hold data on the number of “unbanked” or marginally banked in Greece. Based on the 73 Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband. “Stellungnahme – Girokonto für ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ – Öffentliche Anhörung des Finanzausschusses des Deutschen Bundestages”. Drucksachen 16/2265, 16/818, 16/731 (Berlin: 29/11/2006) 74 Flash Eurobarometer 282. “Consumers’ Views on Switching Providers (European Commission: Brussels forthcoming) 75 DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, "Financial Services Provision and Prevention of Financial Exclusion ". 76 Bundesregierung, "Bericht Der Bundesregierung Zur Umsetzung Der Empfehlung Des Zentralen Kredituasusschusses Zum Girokonto Fuer Jedermann." Eurobarometer survey, approximately 93% of the Greek population have a current bank account. This is in line with the EU27 average.77 A separate study commissioned by DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities shows that nearly 30% of the Greek population have no access to transaction banking, revolving credit or savings of any kind.78 It should be noted however that many in Greece have a savings account, even though they may lack a transaction account.79
Current Situation & Support for Future Action. The introduction of a Basic Bank Account has reduced but not eliminated the problems of financial exclusion. The Réseau Financement Alternatif has estimated that since the introduction of the law in 2003 the number of persons excluded has fallen from approximately 40,000 to 10,000 in 2009. A recent development has been an amendment to the law on basic banking service which limits the amounts paid into a bank account that are subject to seizure by legal process.